Toronto teens re-enact the alleged Rob Ford video

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford looks on during a flag raising ceremony at Toronto City Hall the day after allegations have been made by a U.S. website and the Toronto Star that he smokes crack cocaine on Friday. Photo: Michelle Siu/Postmedia News

A video posted Monday by The Torontonians, a teen art collective based in downtown Toronto, addressed the alleged video of Mayor Rob Ford smoking a substance believed to be crack cocaine.

Despite controversial efforts to retrive the video from producers who want to sell it for $200,000, the video remained unseen by Monday, as the Canadian media continued to watch the meter on the “Crackstarter” fundraising campaign initiated by the New York-based Gawker — which broke the story on Thursday night.

“The video depicts what allegedly took place, and is not meant to be an accurate representation of reality,” cautioned the description on the YouTube upload from The Torontonians — a group based in the historically lower-income, yet contiually gentrifying, neighbourhood of Parkdale.

Darren O’Donnell, the adult organizer of the collective, played the part of the mayor.

As with the accounts of the 90-second video offered by Gawker and the Toronto Star, the re-enactment features coarse language, although it’s prefaced with sensitive words about Ford’s alleged addiction issues. Comments about the production and what this story means for Toronto are offered at the end.

An animated clip based on reports of the Ford video emerged Friday morning, within about 12 hours of the initial reports, by Taiwanese news studio Next Media Animation — which was watched over 225,000 times over the Victoria Day weekend.

Truth Mashup, a YouTube and podcasting troupe based in Toronto, has also produced this tone-deaf musical tribute to Rob Ford’s political career.